California says 200 teachers helped kids cheat on state exams

[CShine]

State investigations have found nearly 200 public school teachers helped students cheat on state exams by giving them hints, answers or extra time to finish, records show. Investigations proved the allegations against more than half of about 400 teachers who were investigated statewide in the past five years, the Department of Education said. Last month, the department said only 200 investigations had been performed but later doubled the figure, saying some paperwork inadvertently had been omitted. The additional cases are "still not a lot compared to the hundreds of thousands of teachers we have," said Barbara Kerr, president of the 300,000-member California Teachers Association.

Most investigations led to reprimands and warnings, but a few teachers were fired or resigned, according to school administrators and union officials. The incidents include a teacher in the El Monte City Unified School District who reviewed 24 students' answers, told them to erase some and re-administered the test. In another case, a teacher in the Westside Unified School District in Palmdale told 37 students last year to write a first draft of an exam essay, edit it and then copy the revised version for the test.

The teacher didn't realize that was against the rules, district Superintendent Regina Rossall said. The state-required standardized tests are used to gauge school performance and consistently low scores can lead to reassignment of teachers and withholding of federal funds.

"This is a huge stakes test," Rossall said. "I mean, that's a report card in the end," she said. "That's how the public is measuring our schools."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/06/23/state0620EDT0033.DTL

[DrWeird]

1. Good for them.

The tests are a joke.

[brokensymmetry]

2. High stakes tests -

means high incentive to cheat.

[SW FL Dem]

3. Here in FL - the students can't learn anything other than how to take

the damn FCAT thanks to Jeb and NCLB. The schools get bonuses if they do well. My son's school will get over $130K this year since it is an A school. Guess what they do with it? (1) Invest in new hardware/software; (2) Hire teachers to cut the teacher student ratio to something less than 30 to 1; or (3) Distribute it as bonuses to the administration and teachers as an incentive to continue the status quo. The answer is (3) of course.

Please don't misinterpret my comments. I support teachers 100% and acknowledge they are underpaid. What I object to is the use of cash bonuses to force teachers to teach to the damn test. Teachers are scared that if they actually teach something interesting to the kids, they will will lose their "bonus" (which they need to earn a living wage) or even worse, they lose their job.

[teach1st]

4. Absolutely

...and one casualty is social studies. Very few of the Florida elementary teachers I know are teaching social studies anymore..it ain't tested. Consequently, we're raising a bunch of kids with little civic knowledge.

By the way, I teach social studies. It's the core of my curriculum. I use the text, newspapers, and magazines to teach reading, writing, and math. My kids test out very well and I only open those stupid test practice tortures two days before the FCAT. You don't have to teach to the test.

[KittyWampus]

6. You Need To Write A Book!

sounds like you've developed a good teaching method.

[teach1st]

7. Many teachers are too afraid to do it...

Too afraid that they'll get punished for low test scores.

[1monster]

9. Here in Florida, we have had a tremendous jump in the number of

students who are giving up on the FCATS and taking the GED instead. A lot of that jump is sixteen year olds who took the required for graduation test for the first time in tenth grade and realized that they were in for serious trouble.

If they can pass the GED test and get a standard General Education Diploma, then why can't they pass the FCAT test for a standard diploma?

There's something not right here.

I've just heard of a vice-principal being fired because he allegedly helped several students cheat on the FCATS. Since he was not proctoring the test, I'm unsure of just how he could have done this, but I'd take him over ten other principals/vice-principals....

Sad what these damned tests will do to students and educators.

Another school that I know was awarded big bucks when they were named an "A" school for their FCAT scores. That money caused some real pain and acrimony in the school for several months on how to divide and spend it.

I hate the way the FCATS are used, and the tests are NEVER given back to the students or the schools so they can be checked for correction errors.

[Baclava]

5. DOH!

"The teacher didn't realize that (cheating) was against the rules"

LMFAO!

[2Design]

8. Good these test are useless and have nothing to do with

education....
florida just suspended students and then took students off the roles so their schools looked ok to get funding....

[James T. Kirk]

10. Unprofessional and unethical

This behavior is unprofessional and unethical. I expect better from American teachers.

Anyway, I've taken standardized tests in public school plenty of times and the tests are really not that hard.

Lots of people seem to be against standardized testing, but I think it is one of the tools needed to improve eduaction. You can never tell if you are improving or not if you don't have objective measurement, analysis and corrective action.

There is a danger that you cam "teach to the test", but I think teachers ought to be competent enough to avoid that. If you teach the basics, the test results will follow.